refocusing...

This week has been hard.

After the excitement of finally seeing where God wants us to serve next, we came home and put our house on the market.

4 days later, God brought us a buyer and by the next day we had a contract...amazing!  How cool to see God work so quickly.

So, I made plans to fly to Arizona to find a house and to start interviewing moving companies (which we could only do with a contract on our LR house).  I flew to Arizona the next week and found the perfect house for us.  God moved some obstacles and on sunday, last week, we signed a contract.  Every thing was in place and for the first time in a year felt out of "limbo".

I flew home Monday and 15 minutes after we walked in the house from the airport, we got a call from our realtor that the contract on our house here had fallen through.

We were shocked.

the inspection had been Friday and when the inspector left, he told Steve there were no major problems with the house. Steve had met the couple at the inspection and said they were very nice and he was excited he had been able to tell them all about how to take care of the pool, etc.

So, what happened?

Well, we don't know.  We are assuming buyers remorse and maybe they got nervous about the work involved in caring for a pool, they had never had one before.  But we really don't know.  They just backed out and Arkansas law lets them.

honestly, that started a week of fighting doubt and anger.

While these people got to just back out and go look for a new home, we had to deal with having missed 2 weeks on the market and now having the title "back on the market"....which to most realtors means...there is something wrong with that house.  We had already put a contract on another house that now was in jeopardy and also signed with a moving company.  It was hard not to be angry.

For the whole week, not one person has asked to see the house.  We have tried to remind ourselves of EVERYthing God has done this year and how He has worked all these things in our favor, but our eyes were focused on our house.  We sat each day, with nothing to do, just waiting for the phone to ring for a showing and the stress level just creeped up until it filled the house.

This morning, in my quiet time, I was reading Oswald Chambers and this is what he wrote:

...You may have just victoriously gone through a great crisis, but now be alert about the things that may appear to be the least likely to tempt you. Beware of thinking that the areas of your life where you have experienced victory in the past are now the least likely to cause you to stumble and fall.

We are apt to say, “It is not at all likely that having been through the greatest crisis of my life I would now turn back to the things of the world.” Do not try to predict where the temptation will come; it is the least likely thing that is the real danger. It is in the aftermath of a great spiritual event that the least likely things begin to have an effect. They may not be forceful and dominant, but they are there. And if you are not careful to be forewarned, they will trip you. You have remained true to God under great and intense trials— now beware of the undercurrent.

Wow.

It hit me square between the eyes.

We have been letting the sale of our house not only become our focus but we have also allowed it to take our eyes off our future ministry.  We have spent the week praying for a buyer (not a bad thing) but had stopped praying for our future ministry and the people there without even realizing it.

We have come through this year depending on God in one of the hardest times of our lives and then, just like that, allowed doubt to take over.

I can just visualize God shaking His head.

ugh.

So, today I refocus!

I am focusing on this amazing ministry God has for us in Arizona and letting God work out the details of getting us there.....He's better at it anyway!  :)

And just like that, the stress balloon in this house was burst!